Breastfeeding regression?

[fergie17]

My little guy is 12 weeks old and it seems like the last 3 weeks or so have been awful for breastfeeding! He did well previously with no issues except oversupply and oald which I managed fairly well with feeding on one side at a time and spraying into a towel. Gradually he's really been super fussy as soon as I position him to eat. Instant crying and will go into eat and then pull away. Usually I can either wait it out for 5-10 minutes and then he's fine and eats. Or bizarrely if I play this YouTube video of vacuuming he can latch on almost right away after calming down. He also never has the issue in his one MOTN feeding. Any ideas? I thought maybe reflux but doesn't seem to completely add up. We do one bottle feeding a night and I thought maybe he was getting spoiled but he cries when milk is flowing or not and everything in between. Super frustrated so any advice is appreciated!

[edenaurora]

No advice (sorry) but there's a YouTube video of vacuuming? You may have just rocked my world. I don't know why I never thought to look. DS loves the vacuum.

[fergie17]

Yes! It's saved me 100s of times. I like the one by lucid tv.

[flcl]

Maybe LO is distracted by his surroundings and the white noise is helping with that? Babies are such funny and finicky little creatures. Even when LO was a pain to nurse during the day, MOTN feedings were always smooth cause he was tired, the room was dark, the noise machine was on, etc... I would try nursing him in a calmer room, less lights and a noise machine to see if that helps. Hopefully this phase is almost over for you. GL!

[fergie17]

That's a possibility. Today almost seems worse. Had a great feeding at 130 am and 730 when he was sleepy but subsequently not able to get him to eat without pulling off crying every 10-15 seconds. We've tried five feeds in 2 hours and all of them are unsuccessful. He's now sleeping on the boob and hopefully will wake up and nurse half asleep.

[fergie17]

Thanks for the kind words. I stretched him to 3 hours between feeds and he was clearly very hungry. He was more willing but still cried. I turned on the video and we had a pretty stretch of eating. Then when flow wasn't fast started biting and crying so we stopped. Looking hungry 1.5 hours later. I have an appointment with an lc tomorrow. Will let everyone know!

[Deleted]

Is LO getting too hungry between feeds and is too worked up to nurse? Are you catching early hunger cues? I just ask because I saw you said something about stretching out feeds.

[fergie17]

We are using 3 different bottles and I still don't have a handle on what he likes. Seems like he enjoys the dr Browns best, followed by avent is he's patient that day and then life factory. I think I have been feeding him too often and that's why I stretched out the feed to see if that would help. He did seem less frustrated and not worked up as quickly. The evening was interesting. He was sleepy in daddy's arms so I took him upstairs. Turned on his video before we positioned him. He plopped down sleepily with eyes closed and latched immediately. He didn't fuss once. He proceeded to cat nap and eat here and there with one longer feed at the end for an hour. He was super sleepy and went to bed right after making it over an hour earlier than he usually goes to bed. Maybe a growth spurt who knows!

[Libby]

My 14 week old has been getting very distracted during feedings. She thrashing around, unlatches and smiles, looks at every sight and responds to the littlest noises. We have started feeding in a quiet darker area (saving her bedroom for naps and night time rocking) and it is helping a lot! We also started using a nursing necklace to keep her focused. I think it's these little ones starting to respond to their surroundings! Good luck! I'm right there with ya

[rayray007]

My boys are 14 weeks and I went through something similar 1-2 weeks ago. I dont know for sure if it was a growth spurt or what, but it seems to be better now. Hopefully it's just a phase

[fergie17]

I had my lc appt today and it was so helpful! I have oversupply and a forceful let down so she said to start four hour blocks from now on. I brought him in 3 hours after his last feed and he started fussing like he does. She asked me if this was what the problem was and I said yup! .She said well he's just not hungry. And I said but he ate 3 hours ago! She said as long as he's gaining weight and happy not to force feedings. His cues have also recently changed so the lip smacking and tongue thrusting aren't necessarily hunger cues. The other thing that helped was she said he should suck on the pacifier while lying on the boob for awhile. We did that for about 5 minutes and then he guzzled down one oz in 3 minutes. She said he really may only need to breastfeed 5-6 times a day because of all my milk. Regardless he's doing fine. He weighs 14 lbs 15 oz at 12 weeks. This is up from 12 lbs, 8 oz at his 2 month appointment!